Get Your Free Copy!

The much awaited third edition of Candy Harrington's "Barrier Free Travel: A Nuts and Bolts Guide for Wheelers and Slow Walkers" is hitting the streets and I predict it to be even popular than her past books! Candy is known for her honesty, digging out the details, pulling no punches and citing resources. She also includes various people's experiences which breaks up the book into a more "fun" read than a dry resource.

To celebrate the book, Candy is giving away some free autographed copies of her new book. Read about how you can get your free copy at http://budurl.com/mz7b.

Flying Fish & Rolling Wheels

The Alaska cruise season is in full swing with many of the ships sailing from the Seattle. With so many exciting places to visit in this friendly city, it’s a great place to stay for a few nights before your cruise.

One unique attraction, Pike Place Fish Market, has quite the fan club and there’s a recipe to their success. They are one part Cirque du Soleil with the way they entertain their customers. Add in a piece of your favorite wacky teacher because they know their seafood and are happy to teach you about your dinner. Throw in a pinch of that “goofy big brother” because of their way of having fun, but also being a part of the community. Mix all of these ingredients and you find why Pike Place Fish Market has become an “experience” which has also made it into one of Seattle’s biggest tourist attractions as well as everyone’s favorite place to buy seafood.

I’ve visited their store twice when I’ve been in Seattle, dragging my teenage sons with me the second time a few years ago. I say “dragging” because, well, sightseeing in a marketplace wasn’t rating as high as the Underground that they had just toured. However, flying fish and the largest crab legs they’ve ever seen in their life gave my sons an experience that they still talk about!

The guys at Pike Place Fish know the essence of “community.” They interact with their guests (customers) and are active with local events. And in this time when businesses are learning about “social network marketing”; they’ve learned it, embraced it and have marked their presence.

Their website is fun and which matches the personality of the business, complete with a webcam, photos, online store and blog. They tweet on Twitter and they have the most fun Facebook group I’ve come across.

My enthusiasm gained a lot of momentum over that Facebook group. Every picture exudes fun whether it’s them interacting with the famous Globetrotters or the non-celebrities who stop by. That is how it came about that I called Anders at Pike Place Fish Market. I explained that my agency’s specialty of accessible cruise vacations for slow walkers and wheelchair users represents about 60% of our business, and that our http://www.wheelchaircruising.com/ website houses photos showing accessibility of cruise ships and ports. Talk about accommodating! Anders sent some wonderful photos showing that same fun and enthusiasm with a couple of customers that were happy to assist with the project. While we have some attractions and cruise lines which have been pretty good at supplying photos, there are even more which aren’t so accommodating. But in the same exciting spirit that they do everything else, Pike Place sent photos.

If you get to visit Seattle, visit the marketplace. But if you aren’t lucky enough to see them in person, you can get to know them further and order from them online at their website.



-Connie & the Access Travel Team

P.S. Get free smoked salmon from Pike Place Fish Market- Book an Alaska cruise for 2009 or 2010 through our office between 6/17/09 - 7/31/09. Send an email to Connie with the header "Flying fish blog" and, in the email include the names of the travelers and the name of our agent who is working with you. Your salmon will be sent ot you upon return of your trip.

Cruising Alaska (part 2) – Don’t Get Left Out in the Cold!

Last week’s blog explained that we will have a drastic reduction in cruise beds sailing in Alaska in 2010 which is mostly due to the excessive taxes and port-related fees that Alaska’s state and local governments charge on cruisers. At least five cruises lines have adjusted ships and itineraries which will bring down the number of passengers able to cruise in Alaska by at least 25%.

With such a large impact one of the cruise industry’s most popular destinations, wise consumers will need to know how this will affect you.

Cruise prices, like most prices, are based on the laws of supply and demand. Cruise lines want to earn as much money as they can on their cabins. When the demand is low and cabins are not selling, we see lower rates and promotions. When the cabins are filling, prices increase.

The lower “supply” in Alaska next year will cause a higher demand for those beds and, therefore, higher prices. My advice is to book early! As cabins fill and prices increase, your cruise rate will be protected from increase. In the less likely event that your ship doesn’t fill and the cruise line offers a promotion, there’s a good chance that you will qualify for a reduction. No guarantees, but the majority of cruise rate promotions are applicable to previously booked reservations.

The cruise lines’ reductions also means less choices of ships, itineraries, cabin location and cabin type so don’t risk waiting too long. If your heart is set on something specific, the key to getting what best fits your interests is to book early.

I’m estimating that the reduction in “beds” due to ship deployment and itinerary juggling is going to reduce the number of wheelchair accessible cabins by about 20%. That’s one fifth less accessible cabins in a market that offers the most accessible ports. My fear is that this change for next year is going to most affect the travelers who have disabilities requiring the necessity to have one of these coveted cabins. Booking early is particularly important for travelers needing accessible accommodations.

Most of the cruise lines already have their schedules set for their 2010 Alaska sailings. While the brochures won’t be out for a while, our travel consultants do have access to all of the information available. We’re ready to book you and your friends, your family or your group. We have the keys to making a great vacation and you now have the key to what it takes to get your cabin choice at the best rate. Don't procrastinate. Book early!

Cruising Alaska (part 1) - Are We Tourists or Cash Cows?

Many Alaskans understandably experience mixed emotions regarding cruise passengers which is understandable. The scales weigh between needing income from tourism versus not wanting tourism to destroy the environment.

But Alaska’s politicians use cruise passengers as a cash cow for the state. Taxes and port-related fees are tremendously higher in Alaska than in most other areas. For instance, I compared two ships, each sailing to four ports in mid-August. Each had minimum balcony rates with just about the same cruise base rate. The taxes and port related fees for Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Spirit in Alaska came to $318.45 whereas the same line’s Carnival Valor in the Caribbean had fees and taxes of $228.87. I found that the added costs on the Alaska cruise represented about 25% of a traveler’s price while those added costs on the Caribbean cruise were 17% of the total price. Obviously on a lower priced cabin such as an inside, the percentages going toward taxes and port related costs would be much higher.

Included in these inflated costs of cruising in Alaska is a $50 “head tax” known as the “Cruise Ship Initiative” that was barely voted in during 2006 to start with the 2007 sailing season. Also included in this “initiative” is a requirement that cruise lines must pay one third of all onboard gambling proceeds to the state of Alaska. As alcohol and gambling represent the two largest shipboard incomes, this is a huge blow to the cruise lines’ pockets which either needs to be made up in revenue elsewhere or as lower earnings when sailing in Alaska.

In a bad economy, the law of supply and demand has translated into too many cabins still available in this year’s Alaska season for the cruise lines to be comfortable. Therefore promotions roll out that lower prices on whatever sailings aren’t filling adequately. The providers of the accommodations, food and entertainment--- the cruise lines--- bite the bullet and have to lower their prices although the state of Alaska still gets their same income per passenger.

A combination of the economy and the cost of doing business in Alaska were the biggest motivators in Royal Caribbean announcing that they are going to deploy one less ship in Alaska in 2010. Immediately following this announcement, ABC Alaska News reported, “Analysts predict $55 million in lost revenue, 42,000 less visitors to Alaska, and the loss of 600 full time jobs.”

Royal Caribbean’s statement was soon followed by similar announcements by Holland America, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines and Norwegian Cruise Line.

The state of Alaska will experience drastically lower revenue from cruise passengers next year. But perhaps their environment will be better off.

Stay tuned for a future blog on how this affects everyone wanting to cruise to Alaska whether you are a travelers who has a disability or not.

By the way, I meant no disrespect to cows in the writing of this blog. I lived on a dairy farm as a young child. We had Holsteins. They’re cute in a big, dumb kinda way. They don’t understand taxes. But I’m not crazy about bulls. Maybe some day I’ll tell you about Big Jack.

Social Network Butterflies

I can remember when my socks were knocked off the first time I sent a piece of paper through a fax machine and the person on the other end of my phone call told me they received it. Immediately! Wow!! Little did I know what technology was going to bring to my door over the next couple of decades.

Now computer technology brings our office to you. Right now you’re in your home or office (or perhaps even in a Starbucks!) reading what I’m typing from Pennsylvania. Amazing! Because of the internet we have clients in the U.S., Canada, Britain, and Jordan which would not have been feasible 20 years ago.

Now our agency is moving ahead in ways to continue to build a travel community for those of you who want to participate. We are working on ways to bring news to you quickly and to be in touch as often as you like... at your convenience and on your terms.

For starters, we’re Twittering now! Well, actually we’re technically “tweeting” on Twitter. Which I think makes us Twitterers. Sandy tweets on behalf of our newer division, Chicks at Sea, which is devoted to women’s cruise and tour groups. Sandy is posting travel tips, news and items of interest regarding women travelers of all ages and with all kinds of interests. You can sign up to follow Sandy at @ChicksAtSea or go to http://twitter.com/ChicksAtSea.

I will be tweeting about accessible travel and loosely connected information. Our last few tweets included writing about an accessible hotel chain, an announcement that the North Pole reached by a wheeler and that one of the major airlines moved their India call center back to the U.S. You can sign up to see my tweets @WCCruising or by visiting http://twitter.com/WCCruising.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, it’s free and takes only a few minutes to sign up. There’s no spamming or loading up your email. “Tweets” that people write are maxed at 140 characters so these are short little notices, not volumes of reading. You visit your Twitter account to read the tweets of anyone whom you have signed up to “follow.” I am amazed at the amount of information I can quickly see in a few short minutes on my Twitter account.

Stay tuned because our next blog will be to tell you more about the online community on which you can find us.


Connie & the Access Travel Team

"Oops", My Mistake is Your Gain

I realized this morning that I forgot to cancel a group that didn’t materialize. It's an October '09 group aboard Liberty of the Seas. My first inclination was to call the cruise line and cancel the cabins as I don’t like to keep "space" blocked that we’re not using.

However, in comparing rates, I see that the few cabins we’re holding for balconies and oceanview are much lower priced on our contract than what is currently offered to the general public.

Normally I wouldn’t use our blog to advertise a sale price, but rather than cancel these immediately, I decided to offer to our clients an "Oops!" sale. Since it’s such a great, but very short-term sale on a very accessible ship and because I found out that there are a lot of accessible cabins still available, I decided I would make an exception to what we normally do with our blog. So as the kids say these days, "My bad!" and maybe this will benefit you.

Liberty of the Seas is a "Freedom-class" Royal Caribbean ship. She’s amazing. Vicki and I escorted Candy Harrington’s Emerging Horizons’ 10th Birthday cruise group on her in 2007. Members of our group had lots of fun on her. We had people using the lift for the pool, climbing the rock wall with assistance, taking part in our miniature golf tournament, seeing the amazing Ice Capades-like show along with the other shows and we had a great time being pampered and fed. You can see us having fun and some of the ship’s accessibility from the photos on at this link

The itinerary will be Western Caribbean. Labadee is a tender port with which our clients have had remarkable success on the tendering. I don’t think we’ve had more than two clients who couldn’t tender there because of sea conditions. Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico both offer options for "wheelers" which one of our Access Travel Team specialists would be happy to discuss with you. Grand Cayman can be a bit tougher. It’s a tender port and the sea tends to have a bit of "attitude" a bit more often, but we have had clients tender and sight see or wander there.

If you are interested in sailing on this Liberty of the Seas on 10/17-24/09, we will need a $500 per cabin deposit by Thursday, April 23. After that, our group will automatically cancel.

The following rates are per person based on double occupancy, do not include $76.59 tax and are subject to availability. "Current rates" above were current as of the morning of 4/15.

Royal Caribbean International’s Liberty of the Seas
October 17 – 24, 2009
Sails from Miami to: Labadee, Jamaica, Grand Cayman & Cozumel

Balcony - current rate $1240 – OUR RATE $920 (only 3 cabins at this rate)
Oceanview - current rate $1099 – OUR RATE $799 (only 1 cabin at this rate)
Promenade view - current rate - $759
Inside, higher category - current rate - $689

If any family or group can pull together reservations for at least five cabins that sail, we can reimburse you (the group leader) $530 toward the cost of your cruise.

For more information, call 610-532-0989 or email.

-Connie & the Access Travel Team

Packing: If it's not on the list, don't put it in the bag!

Lists--- the backbone of many a busy person! In my case, I need them to stay organized and focused. Packing for a trip is just one of many areas in which I live by a list.

Creating a list ahead of time gives you a plan to follow rather than haphazardly throwing items in a pile to be packed. It helps to ensure that you remember everything necessary. Otherwise, part of your vacation will be spent wasting time buying overpriced replacements for what you forgot. Not fun!

An issue I fight myself on is not filling any empty space I have in my luggage once everything on the list is packed. I hear it’s a common problem with many travelers. I’m going to promise myself here and now to try harder to fight the urge to fill that space. If it’s not on the list, it does not go in the bags! Besides, leaving a bit empty gives you a lighter load to your destination and some space for souvenirs on the way home!

Break the list down by what bag into which your items will be placed. This will keep you more organized so that you won’t later be ransacking through your bags to look for wayward objects.

Once you’re finished packing, put your list in your carry-on bag. If your luggage gets lost during the trip, filing a claim for what is missing will take less time and the claim will be more precise.

After your trip, evaluate your list. Add anything you wish had been on it and remove what wasn’t necessary. Now you have a list from which to work for future trips rather than your having to reinvent the proverbial wheel each time!

One of our wonderful clients shared her packing list form with us in case it could be of help to others. You are welcome to download a free copy of the form which can be found in the "Travel Tools" section of http://www.wheelchaircruising.com./

Packing may never be the most fun activity, but you can keep it from being an overwhelming chore when you’re already busy trying to tie up lose ends at work and home so you can get going on your trip!

Connie & your Access Travel Team


P.S. If your sense of humor is a bit on the Abbott and Costello side, you might enjoy getting a video lesson on packing by watching "Mr. Bean Packing" at http://www.metacafe.com/watch/149068/mr_bean_packing/ .
.
.